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Story From Columbine Health Systems: Senior resources help make caregivers "just family" again

Lauren Shimp is Social Services Director at Columbine Health’s Centre Avenue Health & Rehab. While her position entails a lot of different duties, one of them is talking to families who are entering the world of senior care for the first time.

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Senior resources help make caregivers "just family" again

Shimp recommends going in and touring facilities if you are interested in them. Actually going in and making connections in person can go a long way towards a decision, even if a facility doesn’t have a space available immediately.(Photo: stevecoleimages, Getty Images)

Lauren Shimp is Social Services Director at Columbine Health’s Centre Avenue Health & Rehab. While her position entails a lot of different duties, one of them is talking to families who are entering the world of senior care for the first time.

Most people aren’t thinking about senior care until someone in their family – usually their parents – are in need of more care than the family can realistically provide. This often puts the family in a difficult position of having to jump headfirst into a complicated system they know nothing about. Shimp is often the resource that helps families navigate their introduction to senior care, and has noticed that many people ask the same questions.

The most common questions that get asked of Shimp and her colleagues are around availability of space in their facility for new patients. There is a huge demand for various kinds of senior care in Northern Colorado, and many facilities are perennially full. Most of the time people only seek out care when it is immediately necessary, though Shimp is starting to see some families planning farther ahead.

Centre Avenue Health & Rehab is a little bit different from other facilities because they are constantly changing their roster, meaning beds are coming open frequently.

“We have so many rehab beds, with people staying for only a short time, that we nearly always have some availability and don’t turn anyone down,” said Shimp. “Lots of people ask about getting on a waitlist, and that isn’t really something we have here. We can typically make room if it is needed.”

This flexibility isn’t necessarily the norm for most facilities, so Shimp recommends going in and touring facilities if you are interested in them. Actually going in and making connections in person can go a long way towards a decision, even if a facility doesn’t have a space available immediately. It helps to have conversations with people at a facility and really see if it will be a good fit before making any kind of commitment or spending a lot of time on a waiting list and passing up other potential opportunities.

One of the important factors Shimp highlights when making decisions about a facility is the kinds of care they provide. Centre Avenue offers a wide variety of care within their facility, but this may not be the case for every facility. This might not be a concern immediately, but she encourages people to think about longer term needs for their loved ones.

“One thing I try to remind people when they are considering care is the ability for a resident to stay within a continuum of care, like Columbine, offering all levels of care,” Shimp said. “As different levels of care become necessary, that can all be accommodated on one campus, without the need to move from one organization to another. Continuity of care is the key to quality care.”

This philosophy of convenient care is one of the major advantages of senior care facilities on the whole. Families will no longer have to worry about getting their loved ones to appointments or picking up groceries and prescriptions. All of those things can be found within senior care facilities, meaning seniors can conveniently get all of the care they need and families can rest easy.

“It is a really nice thing for families to be able to pass the burden of care to the professionals in senior care facilities. Family members can go from being the primary caregiver to just being the loving family member again, and that is such a relief for everyone,” Shimp said. “It is one of the best parts of my job, when I see that relief that loved ones are getting excellent care from our team and the family just gets to be family.”

That team and their expertise is one of the other things that Shimp gets to talk to families just entering the senior care world about. While a family member visiting a resident might only see a handful of nurses or CNAs, there is a huge team behind the scenes filled with experts across many different disciplines contributing to the excellent care and community enjoyed by residents.

“What is really important – and one of the things I like best about Columbine as an organization – is the constant evolution of care,” Shimp said. “We as a group of professionals are constantly striving to keep on top of the latest and greatest innovations in care, and as a company we are committed to implementing the best practices based on the research. If that means changing things, we make those changes and can do so quickly. That is really the best philosophy.”

Members of the editorial and news staff of the USA Today Network were not involved in the creation of this content.